President’s Budget is All That and a Bag of Chips

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,(D- Nev.), Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D- N.Y) Sen. Patty Murray, (D-Wash.), and Sen. Dick Durbin, (D- Ill.), presented a favorable Senate Majority response to President Obama’s budget proposal. ($3.5 trillion, according to the Christian Science Monitor)
Reid feels the president’s budget is “in keeping with the message he delivered on Tuesday night, a message of hope, a message that directs his priorities: education, healthcare, and energy. “
“I salute the president on, I think, an excellent budget,” Schumer said.
Murray said, “He’s following up his words by putting into this budget investments that will make our economy stronger, reducing our dependence on oil, investing in healthcare policy, and investing in education.”
“Even more important,” she added, “I appreciate his honesty about the underlying fundamentals of this bill.” She finds criticisms ironic coming from those who did not put the cost of the war into their budget. “We did not get budgets that were honest about the real costs we knew were going to be out there.” This one is, she finished.

But, what about cuts? “We inherited the deepest economic hole that we’ve had since the great depression,” Reid said, adding, “This budget will cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people. Anyone making less than $250,000 will pay no new taxes. We’re giving tax breaks to the people that need them the most, middle class Americans.”
It will cut the deficit in half over the first term, he promised. “We now have adopted the pay-as-you-go program that we had during the Clinton years, and during the Clinton years the deficit was reduced by $600 billion.” There will be $2 trillion in cuts over the next ten years.
Schumer added, “We will have a more active government but, at the same time, a more responsible government that eliminates waste. This budget is aimed at the middle class like a laser. The days are over when Republicans used to give 90 percent of the tax cuts to the very wealthy and say they’re giving tax cuts to everybody.”

Asked if he thought Congress was moving too slowly, Reid said: “In a very short period of time we’ve passed a huge land bill, we’ve passed the Lilly Ledbetter matter, we passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the economic recovery package,” and the pace is not slowing.
Schumer added that they are making “Making Work Pay” permanent, continuing tax cuts for families with children, and the job tax credit. “Something I feel very good about, the 2,500 dollar American Opportunity Tax Credit for college…he makes that permanent,” in the form of a tax deduction for tuition.
Schumer went on to say, “I’ve always seen a housing bill (pending reforms to limit foreclosures) as a matter of fairness, now it’s a matter of fairness and urgency.” Critics of this reform, he added, don’t realize how many homes have been lost, “and 99 percent of the time, the bank gets the house and the attendant responsibilities, and have to hope they can sell them to somebody. “We’re trying to give that family a fighting chance to stay in that home.”
Reid said that bankruptcy courts could renegotiate vacation homes, but not primary residences.

Financial investment firms compared to "spoiled teenagers"

As far as Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, is concerned, there must be a “heightened sense of urgency” about the enactment of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. At a full committee hearing on the turmoil in the United States credit markets, the committee heard from Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Neel Kashkari, interim assistant secretary for financial stability and assistant secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department; Brian Montgomery, federal housing commissioner and assistant Housing and Urban Development secretary; Elizabeth Duke, member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; and James Lockhart III, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The opening statements included Senator Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) comparison of the financial investment firms in question to “spoiled teenagers” who threw a house party while their parents were out of town. Schumer said the financial crisis was “not unforeseeable” and that the Treasury must issue guidelines for future banking endeavors now that taxpayer money is involved. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) believes that if 9800 Wall Street jobs were lost everyday, like they were lost for millions of Americans, the financial problem would have been solved long ago. He then stated that the “funds are not a gift” from taxpayers to banks and that must be made clear through oversight and compliance.

In her testimony, Chairwoman Sheila Bair advised the necessity to recapitalize banks in order to reverse the “confidence problem” happening in America. She said this recapitalization would be similar to that of European banks and would help in the area of liquidity. She also advised that to help homeowners, the FDIC would work with the Senate Banking Committee and Treasury Department to prevent future foreclosures and create sustainable mortgages. Neel Kashkari said that to help financial institutions, the Treasury Department had created seven policy programs including an equity purchase program, a homeownership preservation program, and an executive compensation program. Kashkari believes that the Treasury has “accomplished a great deal in a short period of time,” but stated that it may not be until the end of the year before the $250 billion is allocated to chosen banks.

Can the Democrats take sixty seats in the Senate?

In a briefing with the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke of the funding from special interest groups for Republican senatorial races. Over $16.3 million has been spent on attack ads against Democrats in strategic swing states such as New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Colorado by the Chamber of Commerce and its affiliates. Schumer pointed out that "the good news is that it's not working" with the polls showing overwhelming support for Democratic candidates in Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado, Alaska, and New Hampshire. Schumer believes that "the message of economic change is succeeding everywhere" and the Democrats are the ones expected to bring this change.

Oil companies outrage Democratic Senators

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) held a pen-and-pad briefing on the news of oil companies making record profits. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the oil companies are using their record profits to buy back their stock and make it more expensive, rather than make gas more affordable for American consumers. Schumer said the oil companies' record profits could do so much to lower gas prices, such as give $2000 to every American family. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said oil companies are trying to increase their profits while consumers suffer.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said the Republicans' agenda is the oil companies' agenda. Their push for drilling in Alaska will give the companies more acres to siphon profit from. Reid said the Republicans' persistent obstruction of all Democratic efforts to support renewable energy is "mind-boggling."

Dept. of Justice disgraced by hiring discrimination

The Senate Judiciary Committee discussed a report on politicized hiring at the Department of Justice in favor of conservative candidates. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said the report realizes his worst fears - pervasive partisan hiring in the Department of Justice.

Glenn Fine, the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice, said his investigation revealed that qualified candidates for hire at the Department were deselected because of liberal political beliefs. Politically conservative or neutral, yet under-qualified and junior applicants, were preferred. Fine said Monica Goodling, the Department’s former White House Liaison, regularly considered political affiliations in making hiring decisions.

Fine said the discrimination performed by Goodling and others in the Department violated the Constitution and civil law, but not criminal law, therefore criminal prosecution is not possible. But, Fine said the actions of those transgressors were revealed, and they have since left the Department so disciplinary actions are impossible as well.

Fine said inadequate supervision of the Department’s hiring practices led to the discrimination and as a result inexperienced candidates were hired into not only intern positions, but career positions as well. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) called the details of the report a “despicable” and “beyond disgraceful.” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said he was disturbed that the Department of Justice had become so tainted.